Amazing Grace’s Adventures

Taro & Purple Sweet Potato Cake

2022-03-23T22:41:00.000+11:00

This year, I made my own birthday cake to enjoy with my family. Why? It is so much easier to buy one from bakery shop. That’s because I was craving for a special kind of birthday cake - taro cake!

After spending some sleepless nights researching on various recipe, I’ve combined a few that I think would taste good into my own version. So, here it goes…

Taro paste

400g Peeled, steamed and mashed taro

60g Castor sugar

9g Purple sweet potato powder (@mybluetea)

40g Thickened cream

40g Butter

Taro sponge

Ingredients A:

80g sunflower oil

60ml milk

100g cake flour

10g corn flour

20g castor sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

4 egg yolks

1 whole egg

50g taro paste (can be adjusted)

Ingredients B:

4 egg whites

80g castor sugar

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Taro cream

300ml thickened cream

80g icing sugar (can be adjusted to taste)

50g taro paste (can be adjusted)

Additional purple sweet potato powder and/or blue pea flower powder can be added to achieve deeper purple colour.

METHOD

Taro paste

Steam taro till soft and mashed them while they are hot.
Add sugar and purple sweet potato powder to the paste.
Finally add some thicken cream and butter to make the paste smooth.
Place around 150g paste in between two pieces of baking paper. Use a rolling pin to make a flat disc. The ideal thickness should be around 5-8mm. Use the cake mould to cut out a round shape. Wrap the round taro disc with sling wrap and place it in the freezer to set.
Repeat step 4 to make another disc.
Keep the rest of taro paste in the fridge for later use.

Taro sponge

Preheat oven 145C using top and bottom heating. 140C if using fan baking function.
Mix cooking oil, milk, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl.
Add 4 egg yolks and a whole egg and beat till fully combined.
Sifted in cake flour and corn flour
Add taro paste and mix well. Leave it aside.
In a separate mixing bowl, pour in the 4 egg whites.
Beat the egg whites until it bubbles up.
Add castor sugar in 3 batches into the egg white mix.
Finally add a teaspoon of the cream of tartar (can be substitute with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice).
When the egg white mixture is beaten until soft peak, mix gently 1/3 of the egg white mixture with the flour base mixture prepared earlier. Slowly added in the other 2/3 of the egg white mixture and make sure they are well mixed.
Pour the cake mixture into cake moulds (I used 3 same sized cake mould to avoid slicing them later).
Insert the cake moulds into the oven and bake for 18 minutes. Please bake longer if you are using 1 big cake mould (about 30 minutes).

Taro cream

Beat thickened cream and icing sugar with electric mixer. When the cream achieved soft peak, add in the taro paste.
Tips: I’ve added some My Blue Tea purple sweet potato powder to achieve darker purple colour for the outer layer decoration of the cake.
For this particular cake, I have added My Blue Tea blue pea flower powder to achieve the baby blue colour.

Assembling the cake…

Place one layer of sponge on the cake board. Spread a thin layer of taro cream, then place a layer of taro paste, followed by another thin layer of taro cream.
Repeat step one for second layer of sponge cake and followed by the final layer of sponge placed on top.
Decorate the cake with the rest of taro cream with your desired pattern. Enjoy!~

Purple Sweet Potato Swirly Bread

2021-10-05T05:57:00.004+11:00

I found a few too many purple sweet potatoes in my pantry last weekend. These are some precious sweet potatoes and I really want to make good use of them. So happen that I bumped into a recipe on purple sweet potato swirly bread and that’s it! I’m gonna make my version of purple sweet potatoes loaf bread!

My main intention is to make a kids friendly bread that is healthy and delicious. This bread looks so beautiful, smells so good and has a perfect balance in taste. My family (including the baby) loves this bread!

Okay, here goes the recipe!

Useful tips:

Chilled sweet potato sheet will ensure a successful shaping or the bread. Make sure your sweet potato sheet is well chilled before using it.
Patience is key in ensuring you have a fluffy bread. Allow additional time for proofing if your bread did not achieve the desirable size.
The ideal temperature for bread to proof is about 26C with 75% humidity. However, I find that my bread proof best (within the time frame) at about 40C for first proofing and 45C with a bowl of hot water to create humidity for second proofing. You may experiment through some trials and errors here.

Ingredients

Purple sweet potato paste

120-130g purple sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces

1-2 tsp castor sugar

15g unsalted butter

Bread loaf

200g bread flour

20g caster sugar

3g salt

3g instant yeast

35g yogurt

100g water

20g unsalted butter

Method

Sweet potato paste

Use 1 medium sized Australian purple sweet potato to make one loaf of bread. I used two sweet potatoes here to make two loaves of bread. You should have about 120g-130g of peeled and cut sweet potatoes for one loaf of bread.

Steam the sweet potatoes in a steamer. Steaming is better than boiling as it retains more flavour in the sweet potatoes without acquiring additional water from boiling.

Once the sweet potatoes are cooked (poke with a fork to check), mash the sweet potatoes in a bowl while they are hot. Add sugar and butter and mix well. Make sure your mixture has no lumps. You should have around 140g-150g of sweet potato paste at this stage.

Place your mashed sweet potato mixture onto a piece of baking paper and cover it with another sheet of baking paper. Flatten the mixture using a rolling pin to make a slightly rectangular shape, with about 5mm thickness.

Place the sheet (with baking paper) into the fridge for chilling. Meanwhile, you may start making your bread.

Bread making

Mix all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, yeast and salt) in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle and add in yogurt and water into the mixture.

Mix the mixture using a hand mixer or a stand mixer until ingredients are well combined. Add butter (cut in small cubes) into the mixture and continue mixing using the hand mixer or stand mixer.

Depending on the flour you use (some flour retain moisture more than others), add a little more flour to the mixture if it is too sticky like this:

You need to achieve the texture below to ensure the bread mix is ready.

Spread a little flour on your working bench or you may use a pastry mat, take the dough out of the mixing bowl and using your hands, knead the dough until it is smooth on the surface.

Roll the dough into a round ball shape, return it to the mixing bowl, cling wrap it and put the bowl into a warm and moist place for first proofing (about 1 hour). I usually use the preheated oven (about 30C - 40C) as my proofing environment since Melbourne weather is usually quite cold and dry.

Check on your dough after 1 hour (sometimes you need slightly more than an hour), and if the dough is 1.5 - 2 times the original size, it is ready!

Take the dough out of the mixing bowl and place it on the floured bench or a pastry mat. Punch the dough with your fists for the air to come out. I learnt this from professional bakers.

Roll the dough with a rolling pin (or any cylinder shaped bottle) into a square shape of about 5 - 10mm thickness.

Place the chilled sweet potato sheet onto the dough and wrap it up.make sure the joints are stick together to avoid holes.

Use the rolling pin to make the dough even but don’t press it too hard. Then fold the dough in thirds, like this:

Turn the dough 90 degree either to your right or left, use the rolling pin and roll the dough gently to be flatter. Then fold the dough again in thirds.

Roll the folded dough slightly with the rolling pin until the length is similar with your baking tin. Then cut the dough into 3 strips, leaving the top uncut.

Make your dough into braids and gently place it into a baking tin for second proofing. I prefer to line my baking tin with baking paper. You may brush your baking tin with a thin layer of oil, too.

I normally place my dough into the preheated oven for second proofing. Your ideal temperature should be 40C-50C with moisture. Hence, I also insert a bowl with boiling water at the rack underneath my dough during second proofing. Let the dough proof for 1 hour until it is almost 1.5 to double of its original size.

Now, your bread is ready to be baked! Preheat your oven to 175C. Meanwhile, brush your bread loaf with milk or egg wash. Egg wash will give you some golden shinny colour and milk will produce a more matte effect. Choose whichever that is convenient to you.

Place your bread into the oven when your oven is fully heated up (important!) and bake for 30 minutes. When your bread is ready, you can gently pat on it and it should gives you a hollow sound. Slice the bread when it is fully cooled down and enjoy!~

Look how beautiful it is! 😍

Nyonya Kerabu Beehoon

2021-09-23T08:11:00.001+10:00

Growing up in Penang, Nyonya food is not foreign to me though I am not a nyonya myself. This Beehoon (or vermicelli) is one of the most fragrant and flavoursome one I have ever tried!

I’m not going to lie that it is quite tedious in preparing all ingredients and that some ingredients are hard to source in a foreign land. Thanks to My Blue Tea for supplying one of the key ingredients, Borneo Torch Flower (a.k.a. Bunga Kantan) that I may enjoy the fullness of taste of this dish!

Here goes the recipe and useful tips.

Useful tips

This dish can be served cold or warm. I prefer my food warm when freshly made. You may tweak the timing of combining all ingredients to make it a cold dish.
Adding condiments like crushed peanuts will enhance the crunchiness of the dish. Highly recommend!
I have mellowed down the spiciness of sambal. You may adjust when making yours. A tomyam version of this recipe can be made by substituting sambal with tomyam paste.

Ingredients (A)

1 tablespoon MyBlueTea kaffir lime leaves powder

3 stalks lemongrass (use the bottom white part only)

1 red onion/ 12 shallots – thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic - minced

2 tablespoon dehydrated @MyBlueTea torch ginger flower - soak in 4 tablespoons of hot water until they are soft. Then slice them.

2/3 cup freshly grated coconut (toast)

1/4 cup dried shrimp (soak, dice and toast)

Juice of 8-10 calamansi limes/ 2 lemons

Pinch of salt to taste

Ingredients (B)

1 pack rice vermicelli

1 cup sambal

1 tablespoon of coconut sugar (palm sugar)

12 - 14 medium or large prawns – shelled and deveined

1.5 - 2 cups water

Garnishing

A handful of mint leaves – finely sliced

Red chili peppers – sliced

Calamansi lime - halved

Roasted unsalted peanuts - coarsely ground (optional)

Fried shallots (optional)

Method

Prepare ingredients (A) in a big mixing bowl
Blanch rice vermicelli in water until it is soft.
In a wok, add cooking oil, Sambal and coconut sugar.
Insert prawns to stir fry. Fry vermicelli, add water and cover the wok for vermicelli to cook. Stir vermicelli to avoid sticking to the wok.
Once vermicelli is cooked, pour the ingredients into the big mixing bowl and mix with the other ingredients.
Prepare garnishing for serving.

Grace’s Turnip Cake

2021-09-15T09:01:00.001+10:00

The other day, I was doing my regular cleaning of the fridge and to my surprise, there were 3 huge turnips I found! What to do with so many turnips?

I must share this little story when I was a wee 7 year old girl in my first year of primary school. We had tea break during the half day of school everyday and I was given $0.20 daily (it was more than sufficient back then) to either spend it in the canteen or to save. I guess I received my personal financial management lessons early.

To my dismay, most of the food sold in the canteen require a special skill - chopsticks using skill, which was foreign to me! My family is a rather modernised Chinese family which uses fork and spoon at the table.

Fear not! I spotted some snacks sold by an elderly lady which require no chopsticks using skills! Those snacks were my beloved lightly fried turnip cakes! Hence, I have started my unending love for the turnip cakes since then, till I learnt the art of eating with chopsticks (which was not very long after).

Now that I’m in a foreign land far away from home, turnip cakes always reminded me of this little funny stories and my love of my hometown.

Here goes the recipe and before then, some useful tips.

Useful tips

Ratio of turnip, flour and water is 1:1:2.5.
You must “dehydrate” the shredded turnip to ensure no excess water in the cake.
Ensure that the steamer is boiling before insert the cake to steam.

Ingredients

1 big white turnip (about 700 - 800g)

1 cup of dried prawns

3 strips of middle bacon (can be substituted with ham)

2 Chinese sausages (lap cheong)

1 medium onion (or 8 shallots)

3 cloves of garlic

3 dried shiitake mushrooms

2 cups rice flour (same measurement as the shredded turnip)

2 tsb wheat starch (1 cup rice flour : 1 tbs wheat starch)

5 cups of water (less if prefer firmer cake)

3 tsb cooking oil

Soy sauce, salt & white pepper to taste

Method

Soak dried prawns and dried shiitake mushrooms. Mince garlic, chop onions, Chinese sausages and bacon strips.
Shred turnip (I used a shredder) and add a handful of salt and mix them around. Leave it for 10 minutes or more.
When the dried prawns are ready, drain the water and chop them into small pieces (you may use food processor, too).
Chop up mushroom when they are soften.
To get rid of the excess water in the turnip, take a handful of the shredded turnip and squeezes the water out. Repeat this until all shredded turnip are done.
In a big mixing bowl, mix the rice flour, wheat starch and water until no lumps are found. To be safe, add just 4 cups of water to the mixture first. Reserve the 5th cup of water for later if needed.
Take out a wok or a big deep pan, insert cooking oil, start sauté onions, dried prawns, Chinese sausage, bacon, mushroom and garlic until fragrant. I start with the biggest fire and turn down to medium to avoid the food getting burnt.
Pour in the turnip and sauté with the other ingredients. Add your flavourings (soy sauce, salt and pepper) to taste.
Turn your fire to low. Slowly pour in the flour mixture and mix the ingredients with the flour mixture. Check on the consistency of the mixture. It should not be runny nor lumpy.
Transfer the mixture to a steaming pan (I used an 8 inch round pan) and put the pan into the steamer.
Steam for 1 hour, let cool (outside of the steamer) for about 30 minutes to 1 hour before cutting up.

From top to bottom: sautéed and seasoned turnip, turnip with flour mixture, cooked turnip cake.

You may cut them in pieces, eat them as they are or lightly pan fry them for crispy skin. Some people also cut them up in cubes and fry them like noodles. Bon appetit!

No Fuss Pandan Ice-cream

2021-09-10T21:30:00.000+10:00

When you are in lockdown and the weather is warming up, yet your ice-cream stock in the freezer has gone down to none, what can you do?

I know what I did - search up a quick and easy ice-cream recipe and make it myself. Here comes the problem - I don’t have an ice-cream churner, only a stand mixer.

Fear not! Apparently, Nigella Lawson had an embarrassingly easy formula which I quickly adapted and make it in Malaysian flavour. Here goes the simple recipe:

Pandan Ice-cream

Ingredients

300ml double cream/ thickened cream (well chilled)

175g condensed coconut milk

2 tsp My Blue Tea pandan powder

1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

Method

1. Put all ingredients into a bowl and mix them in either a hand mixer or stand mixer until achieving soft peaks (with ribbons).

2. Scoop up the mixture into a container and leave it in freezer for 6 hours or overnight. This recipe yields about 800ml of ice-cream. I used a 1 litre container.

Malaysian Style Tomato Spiced Rice

2021-09-08T15:33:00.003+10:00

Tomato rice is a well-loved flavoured rice in many Asian cultures, including the multi-cultural country like Malaysia. Evolved from the southern Indian version of tomato rice, this dish has adapted to spices and fresh produce widely used in Malaysia. It has become a staple rice dish in Malaysia and well-accepted by adults and children.

As a mother of three, I welcome any cooking ideas that is simple and require the least attention to the food while cooking. This recipe meets my simple requirements with an excellent results for the family to enjoy. It is a versatile rice dish that you may pair it with grilled chicken (like I did), lamb or beef curry, etc.

So here it goes - my version of Malaysia tomato spiced rice.

Useful tips:

Wash and soak the rice in water with pandan powder for about 30 minutes prior to cooking. I soaked mine while preparing and stir frying the other ingredients.
Use medium to low fire and be patient when stir frying onions, garlic, ginger and the spices until fragrant but not burnt.
Golden ratio of rice and liquid is 1:1.5. You may adjust the water measurements if you added more tomatoes, coconut milk or tomato purée.

Tomato Spiced Rice

Ingredients

5 cups of rice (I used Jasmine rice as my family does not like the texture of basmati rice.)

2 medium tomatoes (I used 1.5 large tomatoes)

1 large red onion (or 8-10 shallots)

6 cloves of garlic (medium to large size)

1 thumb sized of ginger

2 cloves

1 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

1 cardamom

1 tps pandan powder

2 tbsp coconut milk (may substitute with milk)

2 tbsp tomato purée (may substitute with tomato sauce)

1 tsp salt

3 tbs coconut oil (or butter/ ghee)

5 cups water

Topping/ Garnish

Roasted cashews

Raisins

Coriander or spring onions

Method

Wash and soak rice in water with pandan powder.
Slice onions into thin strips. Mince garlic and ginger. I used food processor to cut down my preparation time.
Cut tomatoes into small cubes (I prefer to sight cutlets of tomatoes in my rice). You may purée your tomatoes if preferred.
Wash and prepare spices.
On the stove, heat up a medium sized sauce pan. Add coconut oil (I prefer coconut oil as it gives a strong aroma) in the sauce pan, followed by all spices.
When you smell the aroma, insert the sliced onions and minced garlic and ginger. Saute them on a low fire.
When the onions are browning (but garlic not burnt), add in fresh tomatoes and sauté until they are a bit mushy.
Last but not least, add tomato purée, coconut milk and salt to the mixture. Do not cook coconut milk on high temperature else it may split.
Pour the mixture into the rice pot. Stir the rice so the mixture is evenly spread.
Start cooking rice in the rice cooker and voila, it will be ready when the rice is cooked!

You may eat the rice as it is or too it up with some yummy garnish.

Kue Pepe

2021-09-05T12:27:00.005+10:00

I came from a foodie family. There, I’ve said it! I grew up in a house filled with fragrance from the kitchen, but no, I was not allowed in my mother’s “territory” most of the time.

Since moving out from home, I was introduced to the wonderful world of food preparation and creation (thanks to my many foodie friends!). Like many things in life, learning comes at a costs (and at times, bruises and bumps), but the journey has been full of joy, surprises and nonetheless rewarding! Here I am, humbly sharing my love for food and culinary adventures with you. Hope you will enjoy it!

Let’s begin with the little recipe I’ve made over this weekend - Kue Pepe. Kue Pepe originated from Indonesia. It is very similar to Kuih Lapis from Malaysia, only better in taste with fragrance and flavour from kaffir lime leaves and pandan leaves. Texture wise, it is more chewy compared to Kuih Lapis. The best part is - you can still separate the layers one-by-one when eating (my favourite thing to do when eating kuih lapis as a child!).

My children love this desert and could not stop eating it!

My two tips for making Kue Pepe are:

Steamer must be boiling before starting on the first layer.
Timing to add each layer must be just right to have distinct layers yet sticking together. I use a skewer to test poking the steamed layer to ensure it is not watery and a bit sticky before gently adding the next layer.

To make this desert, I used My Blue Tea’s kaffir lime leaves powder, pandan powder and rosalle powder. Feel free to use this code (15Grace) to enjoy 15% discounts when purchasing from their website (applicable for Australia only, sorry).

Kue Pepe

Ingredients

Ingredients (A):

230g sugar

750ml coconut milk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp kaffir lime leaves powder

2-3 pandan leaves (or 1 tsp pandan powder)

Ingredients (B):

300g tapioca starch

30g rice flour

Green:

1 tbs pandan powder

Pink:

1 tsp rosalle powder

Oil to apply on the mould

Methods

Mix ingredients (A) in a saucepan and bring to medium to low heat. stir until the mixture sizzles for 2-3 minutes. Turn off and remove from heat.
Let ingredients (A) mixture cool down while preparing ingredients (B) in a big bowl.
Slowly pour ingredients (A) into ingredients (B). Stir until the mixture is smooth and there is no lumps.
Scoop 2-3 scoops of mixture into a small bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of My Blue Tea rosalle powder to make pink colour mixture.
Scoop out half of the remaining mixture into a separate bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of My Blue Tea pandan powder to make green colour mixture.
Oil the mould thoroughly. Let the steamer boil, place the mould in the steamer.
Pour a layer of white colour mixture (2 scoops). Steam for about 5 minutes.
Pour the next layer of green colour mixture (2 scoops). Steam for about 3-5 minutes. Vice versa, until the last layer. Pour in pink colour mixture to make the final layer. Steam for 3-5 minutes until the kue is cooked.
Take the mould out from the steamer, let it cool down completely before de-mould and cut.

Hope you enjoy this recipe and share with me your results!